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Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

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Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#91

Post by dboreham »

jimt1234 wrote: post #82
manca wrote: post #35

I remember when Evernote launched and everyone was super hyped about it -- even some of the biggest VC names promoted them. Not to mention the funding they raised ($290M). It was literally iOS Notes on steroids. I even used it for awhile, but somehow it didn't stick. They hired bunch of great people and had some good backend tech -- sad to see this happen to them.

Didn't Evernote precede Notes? My understanding is that Evernote was the first "notes" app, but I'm old; I could be making shit up in my head.

Older than...Lotus Notes?

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#92

Post by etrautmann »

swayson wrote: post #77

Obsidian.md for the win. I used to use evernote way back when they started, was cool software, then they started scaling and added worst search UI I have ever come across. That day, I deleted my account and went markdown with my own storage. Don't see the benefit of why your notes should be controlled by others.

+1 for Obsidian. So much faster that Notion and does what I need, with amazing plugin ecosystem if you want specific features.

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#93

Post by ledauphin »

guiambros wrote: post #72
echelon wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really love Obsidian, I still have some major blockers. The git plugin is dangerously broken. I've had pushes from different computers overwrite one another. It doesn't show merge conflicts - it's happy to plow forward. I've reduced my usage since that happened. This is a huge problem. I need to have confidence the backups and merges aren't destroying notes. There's no easy way to open multiple workspaces simultane…

Genuinely curious: what's the problem you're trying to solve with Git plugin that the official Obsidian Sync [1] doesn't solve natively (besides cost)? I've been using Obsidian Sync for a year, and it works flawlessly for my use case. Is syncs not only notes, but also configuration, plugins, allows creation of multiple vaults, works on mobile, fine-grained control over which folders to sync in each device, and even a…

great to hear that it works, but it is hilariously expensive for what it does.

When the price comes down to $3/month, I'll start paying for it. Until then, I'll use Syncthing for free.

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#95

Post by emodendroket »

jrm4 wrote: post #17

At the risk of I told you so, it was always a stupid idea. Any service like this that "requires the cloud," but is personal or individual and could be replaced by completely non-cloud software WILL go obsolete. Obsidian, et al understand this.

Services that rely on local storage are vulnerable to their own data loss scenarios as well as being much less convenient.

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#96

Post by kstrauser »

baron816 wrote: post #83
kstrauser wrote: post #28

Not that I doubt this, because it seemed inevitable to my outsider eyes, but do you have any proof of that? I’d recommend getting off of Evernote anyway due to trends. However, is there evidence that this is newly urgent?

Heard directly from impacted employees. 30 to remain of ~300 pre-acquisition. 98 laid off today. No press release, which is why I’m saying something, but you should be able to find people posting on LinkedIn about it.

Wow. Assuming that’s all true, good luck, ex-Evernoters! I hadn’t used your stuff in ages, but I’m sure lots of worked hard to make something nice.

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#97

Post by yabatopia »

SanjayMehta wrote: post #8

They lost the plot when they suddenly reduced the number of devices for the free tier. There was a time when iCloud wasn't reliable. When that improved, Notes became a simpler free alternative.

They lost the plot when they started selling Evernote-branded socks (and other accessories). No bugs smashing, better search or faster/more reliable sync: flush with VC money, the smart guys at Evernote decided that Evernote-branded socks was what their users really wanted.

I still have a few Evernote-branded Moleskine notebooks lying around. They came with a 3 month voucher for Evernote Premium, I think. Anyway, heavily discounted on Amazon, it was almost cheaper to combine the notebooks with vouchers than to subscribe online.

And then you had all the different apps, like a recipe app. My God, all the apps. Complete waste of resources, complete lack of focus.

When the VC money dried up, the penny dropped. Prices were hiked, new subscription tiers with artificial limitations were introduced, management changed, but by then the writing was on the wall and I switched to alternatives.

Being one of the first 1000 Premium users, I still feel bad about the loss of my second/forever brain, though.

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#98

Post by BaseballPhysics »

hu3 wrote: post #67
vzaliva wrote: post #34

Personal journey: I used to be a heavy user of Evernote, but encountered a bug that the developers were not keen on fixing promptly. It was then that I realized the importance of personal notes surviving beyond companies, apps, and formats. Quickly after, I switched to a collection of plain text files using org-mode markdown and have been happy ever since.

That's why I use https://github.com/laurent22/joplin It's markdown, open-source, free. With desktop and mobile support. Syncs notes to any cloud of your choice for free. (I use One Drive) Optionaly you can pay them to sync your data on their cloud. So they even have a compelling business model!

Personally, I just use markdown text files+vimwiki on my laptop, along with Markor for Android, and Syncthing to get my notes where I need 'em, but in the end the principle is the same: Own Your Damn Data!

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#99

Post by seltzered_ »

jimt1234 wrote: post #82
manca wrote: post #35

I remember when Evernote launched and everyone was super hyped about it -- even some of the biggest VC names promoted them. Not to mention the funding they raised ($290M). It was literally iOS Notes on steroids. I even used it for awhile, but somehow it didn't stick. They hired bunch of great people and had some good backend tech -- sad to see this happen to them.

Didn't Evernote precede Notes? My understanding is that Evernote was the first "notes" app, but I'm old; I could be making shit up in my head.

Yes, it preceded iOS Notes. Evernote started in 2004.

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#100

Post by lb4r »

hu3 wrote: post #68
lb4r wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been doing the same for the past few years, but have yet to figure out a good way to sync things between my devices. Not that it bothers me too much, but sometimes I'd like to have that convenience.

Try https://github.com/laurent22/joplin + cloud drive of your choice (I use One Drive). See my reply to your parent commenter.

Thanks for the suggestion! By the looks of it, it seems to be a complete solution similar to Evernote, whereas I just need to figure out the 'syncing' part of things (I use Emacs for the rest).
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